Retailers throw Thanksgiving weekend shoppers another bone

Wednesday

Nov 26, 2008 at 12:01 AM

First we had "early voting." Now, for the truly savvy, we have early "Black Friday" shopping, in which millions of people scour retailers' Web sites days in advance for bargains maybe even better than the Friday morning "door-busters."

STEVE URBON

First we had "early voting." Now, for the truly savvy, we have early "Black Friday" shopping, in which millions of people scour retailers' Web sites days in advance for bargains maybe even better than the Friday morning "door-busters."

Even for those who haven't started shopping online before stuffing the turkey, there's plenty of anticipation and bargains.

This year more than ever, Americans are painfully aware of the historic importance of going out and spending money this Christmas season. Anxiety is in the air. Retail analysts cling to threads of hope, such as the drop in gasoline prices below $2 per gallon, giving consumers a rare break.

The National Retail Federation predicted this week that 128 million people will go shopping during the weekend after Thanksgiving, down slightly from the 135 million people who turned out last year. Retailers are banking on the prediction that people will stop merely walking around and start spending some serious money. Black Friday earned its name because the burst of business on that day is enough to push many retailers out of "red ink" and into profitable "black ink" for the remainder of the year.

SouthCoast retailers are taking no chances, and if it happens that sales are down, it won't be for a lack of advertising.

Patti Souza, The Standard-Times' preprint coordinator and major accounts representative, said about 40 retailers are sending fliers out in the Thursday editions, which could be a record number. "There's a real feeling of do or die. They haven't held back," she said.

In many cases, they're not waiting for daybreak, either. People who line up outside a store that opens at 6 a.m. will be two hours behind the shoppers at Kohl's, which opens at a dark and early 4 a.m. on Friday.

But no one is opening earlier than the Vanity Fair Outlet Mall in Dartmouth, which is throwing its doors open at midnight, with $5 gift cards for the first 100 people who enter the VF store, free energy drinks to overcome the turkey's tryptophan and keep you going into the wee hours, wreaths for those who spend $200 or more, and early-bird specials.

At the Swansea Mall, the first 500 customers through the doors when it opens at 6 a.m. will get a goodie bag full of discount coupons and giveaways, including some jackpot prizes such as iPod Nanos and gift cards of $20, $100 or $250. Shoppers can also enter a contest for a 52-inch Sony television.

Yet there are subtle but unmistakable changes going on, even as Black Friday becomes ingrained in the culture.

Massachusetts residents may have noticed that Kmart has been running television ads trumpeting the news that most of their stores are going to be open all day Thanksgiving, which is starting to turn into Black Thursday.

But it is the Bay State stores that are keeping Kmart from running the table, with blue laws restricting the size of stores that can be opened without a state permit from Attorney General Martha Coakley. If she were to set down the ground rules for large stores to open on the holiday, local police chiefs would then have the final say.

For the past two years, some retailers including CompUSA challenged the Massachusetts rules and attempted to open despite the Blue Laws. But this year is different. There has been no complaining, no challenges, nothing.

The police chiefs of two SouthCoast towns that are heavily retail, Mark Pacheco in Dartmouth and Gary Souza in Fairhaven, say they have had no one approach them for a permit this year.

It is as though something has changed to relieve the urgency of physically opening for business before midnight on Friday.

And all signs point to the World Wide Web.

Advertisers who publish newspaper inserts are adamant about their contents being disclosed prematurely. But a collection of Black Friday Web sites has grown, all of them competing to deliver advance word about specials, especially the rare "door-busters" such as the $300 laptop computers of 2007.

Shoppers are being encouraged to visit the Web sites of retailers even if they are planning to head out the door on Black Friday to shop in the actual stores. Many Web sites such as the Vanity Fair Outlet are posting coupon offers that can be printed out and taken to the point of purchase.

Others, such as Walmart, posted their Black Friday specials days in advance and offered some items exclusively online, with pickup at the stores.

For some, however, online shopping will never replace the stimulation of Black Friday shopping in person. For them, the Dartmouth Mall is trying out a sort of party atmosphere, with staff and volunteers dressed in their pajamas. The "Pajama Jam" is an effort across the 39 properties in the mall's ownership group to collect 25,000 new pajamas and 2,500 new books for abused or abandoned children.